Carter brothers shine at Levels Raceway series
Auckland drivers Matt and Dwayne Carter showed their class to comfortably win the South Island three-hour endurance series finale at Timaru International Motor Raceway Levels on Saturday.
The Carter brothers in their Mercedes SLS produced an outstanding three-hours of flawless driving, proving too fast for the rest of the 23-strong field.
It was a superb turn around after a pit stop error cost them in Ruapuna. Endurance organiser Chris Dunn said it was a fantastic day of competition.
‘‘There were very few incidents and plenty of good fast clean racing. We had a very strong field of racers in both the classes, and that’s exactly what you want with these races.’’
Overall, the Carter brothers were impressive, while Simon Gilbertson and John McIntyre finished the series second in a top effort after some dramas at the track on Friday.
‘‘They had engine problems and their car caught fire, they worked through the night to get it out there and managed to do so,’’ Dunn said. ‘‘It was a great effort by them to finish second considering what happened the day before.’’ Third place went to George and Angus McFarlane. The Carter crew did more than 150 laps over the three hours.
The family trio of Rod, Andy and Hunter McElrea had a successful day. In their Toyota TR86 they managed to secure third in class A, a successful stint for the family – believed to be the first in New Zealand to all race the same car together.
Timaru drivers Vaughan Moloney and Mark Taylor were the best of the four Timaru teams in the three-hour race.
The one-hour race was won by Chris Henderson, who also secured the series, with Steve Parker in his Porsche 997 Cup S second overall. Allan Dippie and Scott O’Donnell were second in the race, while Chris and Johnny Small of Timaru, were third.